Shared Values Process*

Transcription

1 Shared Values Process* A series of questions leaders have asked about the Shared Values Environment We hope these questions and answers are helpful in understanding more clearly how a Shared Values Environment can help you get the people and organisational 'results' you desire. Questions Need Answers... Q. What is a Shared Values Environment? A. It's a place where people put the interests of others before their own. Where people are recognised for their indispensable value and where people are not sacrificed for results but are responsible for achieving results. Q. How will I know if I have a Shared Values Environment and why would I want one? A. When an organisation's values are clearly understood and practiced; and the resolution of conflict is fair and balanced, a common language of extraordinary strength is available to everyone to support innovation, productivity, communications, customer service and true growth. Q. I already have most of the components of a Shared Values Environment, why would I need your organisation's help? A. Researchers have shown that most companies have some of the components of a Shared Values Environment. The fact is that if an organisation is lacking in one or two areas it undermines the entire direction and momentum and ultimately drains valuable energy needed for survival and growth. Q. I've read the book A Journey Into The Heroic Environment. My question is, how do you implement a Shared Values Process... and be specific. A. This question is one of the most important you can ask. First, please understand that implementing a Shared Values Environment takes focused attention on the part of both management and staff. We have detailed flow charts which outline the entire Process. Second, a systematic approach is required to carefully introduce the concepts, skills and language of a Shared Values Environment.Third, there are no quick fix approaches or weekend seminars to create a Value Driven organisation. Implementation is phased in over months. The Process includes consistent reinforcement at all levels of the Página 1

2 organisation. Three modules are introduced. (Shared Values, Empowerment & Customer Centred Teams.) Benchmarks are established (Values & Attitude Study) and time-lines developed Q. O.K., I believe that values-based behaviour is pretty much what I want. But, my question is, Shouldn't senior managers learn this approach and then be able to bring this material into our company without a full Process? Why would I want everyone to go through the Process? A. The first step is for senior managers to be exposed to this material. The Process is set up to depend on both managers and in-house informal leaders to teach and expose others on this material. Without a Process that is customised for the management and staff, the success of the Process would be in jeopardy. In fact, the Shared Values Process is not a management Process but a company-wide Process. The second part of the question has to do with why everyone needs to go through the Process. The simplest answer is that the Shared Values Environment is a place where everyone's basic values are in alignment and that everyone understands the principles and techniques of resolving conflict. These two issues values and conflict resolution are at the very heart of a Shared Values Environment. Unless a company reaches a critical mass of trained employees the likelihood of sustaining a Shared Values Environment long term is very slim Q. If the bottom line is that everyone needs to operate by these values, what happens if people don't buy-in to this idea. In fact, what happens if I don't believe this is the way I can act? A. Values-based behaviour is a personal choice. Those people who feel uncomfortable about telling the truth, trusting, mentoring and putting the interest of others first will feel uncomfortable but our research unquestionably suggests that very few people will not welcome this environment. Our research indicates that a Shared Values Environment is a forgiving place to work and one which allows us to be ourselves in this environment. We purposely space the learning experience over an extended period of time to allow everyone to experience and practice values-based behaviour Q. I f this material is so simple, then how come so few people or organisations are acting in this way? A. The material is simple but people aren't always aware that they aren't operating by their values. Without an environment and people that are coaching, mentoring and encouraging certain values and behaviours, we tend to look for quick answers and easy solutions to the tasks that we are asked to accomplish. Often, we seek tactical solutions without first recognising that our values are at stake. Unwittingly, we have often sacrificed people for results. If we've been in business for any length of time, we have witnessed this fact. In a Shared Values Environment, we begin to recognise when we are turning our backs on our values and are given permission to make choices and take responsibility for our actions. 'Doing the right thing' becomes an important element in reaching our goals. No one Página 2

3 is perfect; but in a Shared Values Environment, we become acutely aware of this difficult balancing act between the treatment of people and the need for results. Q. I keep reading and hearing about the latest and greatest new ideas but nothing seems to stick. How do I know that your Process will stick? A. We wish we could claim that we have invented something new. The facts are that the foundation of building a Shared Values Environment is the fundamental values that we all learned in kindergarten and abandoned soon after. By not challenging, or rewarding non- values based behaviour, we have trained people to act in inappropriate ways. Our experience suggests, that if people are given permission to act appropriately, they will. The Shared Values Environment will stick once an organisation's values are clearly defined and consistently practiced. If your organisation rewards values- based behaviour it will stick. If it turns its back on its values and depends on quick solutions and non- values based decisions, the Shared Values Environment will quickly disappear. Our experience suggests that if you build momentum and a critical mass of values-based role models your chances for sustaining the Shared Values Environment are greatly improved Q. I've sent dozens of my people to seminars and workshops. I'm tired of not enjoying long term results. What makes your Process different? A. When we select certain people to be trained, but fail to create a support system, we are guaranteeing that new learned skills and insights will be diminished or lost over time. We have come to believe that if you send people to enough training, they will change or bring back the 'change agent'. We think that premise is wrong! Shared Values Environment concepts and principles are taught, learned and practiced in the work environment and everyone is aware of the skills and importance of the information, but no one gets trained. The key to the creation of a Shared Values Environment is to focus on your processes or the organisation's operating system. Modify the operating system and people will change. Performance will improve and most of the past people issues will disappear. Q. Some of the comments coming back to me from my senior managers are that if we were to introduce the Shared Values Environment concepts into our company we'd be opening a Pandora's Box, and I'm not sure we're ready to do that around here. Is my observation wrong? A. Taking control of Pandora's Box is a very common question and quite frankly one that needs to be addressed very early in the Process. Here are our thoughts: One CEO said it best. "We've had the box open for years, but we haven't had the guts to look inside!" Experience indicates that employees want a greater role in decision making and responsibility. Further, those companies who have figured out how to harness this positive energy have enjoyed significant gains. In a Shared Values Environment, managers become teachers, mentors and coaches of the organisation's values. Employee surveys for the past decade have indicated that workers desperately want to enjoy improved communications, mutual goals and greater personal autonomy. - The only way managers will ever Página 3

4 take control of the 'box' is by sharing their responsibility downward. In a Shared Values Environment self-management is carefully encouraged and nurtured. Q. I've been working with training companies and consultants for twenty years. I'd like to have a dollar for all the promises they have made. I'm tired of promises. Why should I believe that you can deliver when the others couldn't? A. In our search for a Process that would work, we investigated and studied over 70 corporate training processes. We then followed this research with interviews with 60 Fortune 1000 companies. The Fortune companies spoke candidly to us about what worked and what didn't. The findings suggest that most Processes do not seem to last. We believe the reason for this is that the environment did not support either the new skill or insights of the people who had gone through the training. In this research we were investigating only First and Second Generation Corporate Training Process. Many of the training companies stated that if the environment supported the skills taught by their companies, they believed that a long term effect would be felt. The Third Generation Shared Values Process is predicated on continual practice, an on-the-job Learning Process,' that is reinforced on a daily basis. If the Third Generation Shared Values Process is instituted, there is strong evidence that the effects of First Generation Skill-based training and Second Generation Human Potential training will be enhanced. Finally, we start each Process with a detailed Values & Attitude Study which becomes the benchmark for an annual performance review. Q. My experience with introducing outside 'Processes' is that when you guys leave so does the heart of the 'Program'. Why is this different? A. Third Generation Training is not dependent on outside experts to...make it happen. It is your corporation's own managers and people who become the role models, teachers and leaders of the Shared Values Process. Remember, the Eight Principles of the Shared Values Environment are the expression of 17 million workers who were asked what they wanted and needed to be successful in their work environment. There is no program. A Shared Values Environment gives people permission to act the way they wanted to act in the first place! Most important, this becomes your customised Process. You own the Operating System you create. *Based on the work of Rob Lebow - see particularly Rob Lebow and William A Simon Lasting Change - The Shared Values Process (TM) that Makes Companies Great Van Nostrand Reinhold NY 1997 Página 4

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